Your customers are the lifeblood of your business. No customers equals no business. Plain and simple.

So it stands to reason that the golden rule among businesses -- from startups to more well-established enterprises all the way up the entrepreneurial totem pole -- ought to be to pay constant, close attention to what their customers think, what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and what they need -- or else risk having them jump ship in favor of those who do.

And it’s not really the most desirable of all possible outcomes when your competitor’s ship seems like a luxury cruise by comparison.

There’s a good reason why “Know Thy Audience” is a mantra being chanted many decibels above all others.

It’s because it’s the stepping stone that directly leads to increased conversions, increased brand trust and loyalty, and legions of satisfied customers who aren’t just going to come back through the door for more, but you can bet your bottom dollar they’re going to tell their friends about you, too.

The Million-Dollar Question

For many businesses today, the million-dollar question isn’t why should I dial into my customers’ motivations and desires? It’s how ?

One of the prevailing pain points that a lot of businesses face time and time again is not knowing how to effectively and efficiently gain coveted access to the psychological Holy Grail that is consumer insight.

Even those who have managed to crack what some see as the behavioral Da Vinci Code are still tasked with the challenge of not just distilling downthat trove of information, but also figuring out what data to prioritize and how to applyit in a way that yields measurable results.

Breaking It Down To The Essentials

Here’s the good news: If you’ve ever been led to believe that tapping into the depths of your customer’s psyche to discover what makes them tick is a guessing game or an exercise in futility, the truth is, it’s not.

The solution is deceptively simple, and even more deceptively obvious (alas, it does not involve mastering the ancient art of the Jedi Mind Trick).

Ready to learn the big secret? Drumroll, please…

You ask them.

Seriously. You just ask them. When you pare everything down to the bare essentials, it truly is as straightforward as that. And you’ll be amazed at what you can find out about how people perceive your brand. It’s most likely not exactly what you expected.

Let’s be real, though. When you’re running a business, on top everything else you’re constantly juggling, it can be difficult carving out the time necessary to mine your social media accounts let alone finding wiggle room in the budget to place your chips on shaky outbound approaches to initiate those conversations.

Thankfully, we’re privileged to live in the tech-powered heyday of the Information Age, and the internet’s cup runneth over with intuitive, affordable online tools like Informizely that streamline the data-gathering process and offer incredible insight into how to put it to good use.

Why Surveys?

Wait a minute, you’re thinking, aren’t surveys those super-irritating pop-ups that distracted me when I was busy buying my cat that awesome new Licki Brush?

The answer is, they can be. But the thing is, they don’t have to be. Executed skillfully, and more importantly, non-intrusively, and surveys can pay off big time in a number of ways.

Using surveys is a delicate balancing act. On the one hand, inundating your visitors with too many surveys with too many questions or that are irrelevant to their needs can come off as annoying at best.

On the other hand, asking the right questions at the right time and displayed on your site in the right way is a surefire way to capture the key information you need to keep your customers happy and ultimately build the best brand possible.

Unlike web analytics, for example, which can tell you what your customers do when they visit your site but not what’s driving or holding back their decisions, surveys do -- painting a much broader picture of their attitudes, opinions, and behaviors.

Marry these two strategies, and you’ve got yourself a bona fide recipe for success.

In our next post, we’ll explore the best practices for implementing surveys, when and how to use them, and everything you stand to gain by harnessing them to make fact-based business decisions rather than relying solely on gut feeling.